When attempting to speak with digital natives you have to find some common ground. There’s not much point just increasing the volume if you’re shouting down a well instead of addressing the crowd behind you. yMedia make the point:

the key to using communication effectively is first of all realising that we live in this new world, a networked world, a digital world, and if you want to keep your message out there, you have to update your methods of delivering it.

It comes down to knowing your audience

[Via changing media, changing minds: the language of digital natives.]

According to their article:

“digital natives” … refers to people who have grown up with the Internet and basically refers to anyone under twenty five, nowadays, or ‘generation y’.

But not everyone who’s a digital native is under 25, and not everyone under 25 is a digital native. That’s a difficulty about generalisations.

One thing, though, is solid truth: whoever you’re talking to won’t hear a word you say if they aren’t listening.

More and more people are turned on to text messaging, social networking sites, Instant Messaging. If you’re just sending emails and annually updating a static website then you’re missing out on an increasing share of a potential audience.

I can’t point to published statistics yet — they should be online soon — but last night at a public meeting Russell Brown shared results from a recent survey in New Zealand. Broadband use in NZ homes has risen from about 30% to about 50%, with much of the increase attributed to viewing online video content.

He didn’t specify the video content, but I’d bet YouTube would claim a fair chunk of it. And next, probably, come video podcasts.

Watch some. See what the digital natives are interested in. Start learning the (digital) language.

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